10-step beginner's raw tutorial

Andy

okay so you'd like to try raw, but you're feeling a bit daunted. take a deep cleansing breath, and work with me here.

1. set your camera to "raw" (rtfm if you don't know how to do this )

2. take a pic

3. open photoshop (in this case, it's photoshop cs).

4. if you haven't updated your adobe camera raw plug-in, go to adobe and download the latest version

5. open the raw file (file>open and click on the file name)

6. you'll next be presented with this:


7. if you are just starting out, only concern yourself with the things i've circled here - white balance (color temperature and tint) and exposure. forget everything else, for now! this is an important step for beginners to raw.

8. start by playing with the color temp slider and the tint slider. notice how it changes the pic - you may wish to adjust this, or you may wish to accept your camera's auto wb setting. but play around with it, notice the effects.

9. play with the exposure slider - you can get as much as 2 stops either way without adversely affecting the image quality - sometimes - and it depends on the type of scene and the lighting / iso / etc. start by making small adjustments to the exposure, carefully watching the histogram upper right, don't blow any of the highlights

10. when you have finished your tweaking, click on "ok" (upper right) and the file will be brought into "regular" photoshop. now edit as you would any other pic in photoshop, and remember, save the file as a different name than the original raw file!

there, not so hard, is it?

ginger_55

Andy, I appreciate the tutorial, I am sure others will find it useful. I might use it a few times, unless the photoshop thing costs money.

It is a financial issue with me. My fun is in taking the photos. I only have two 512 mb memory cards, and no money for more.

Also I would need to buy more hard drive space. We have looked into that because of PC problems, since I have been uploading so many photos. However, we can't afford it now..............don't know when.

I know I can't afford tennis shoes until the end of the month, so the hard drive will have to wait. I spend a lot of time trouble shooting my computer. Today was an example.

It is really not fear, it is the restriction of not being able to take as many pictures as rapidly as I like to, and the fear that my computer is going to crash totally from the weight of the photos I put on it.

Repeating, if I could afford the setup, I would certainly try and use RAW, it is financial.

ginger (The tennis shoes were budgeted then the tripod was more than expected.................and so it goes)

We do not all have the same resources. I will print this out. Might try it some night, unless I really need the photoshop plug in and it costs money, then the tennis shoes are the next priority.

Andy

geez ginger, *sigh*
the adobe camera raw update is *free* no charge.

i'm not suggesting that you shoot in raw full-time, but why don't you just TRY it TRY it ginger for your nightshots?

you won't regret it.

oh and ginger - i carry only 1gb of memory card. and i shoot raw 100% of the time.

i made this tutorial just for you.

ginger_55 wrote:

Andy, I appreciate the tutorial, I am sure others will find it useful. I might use it a few times, unless the photoshop thing costs money.

It is a financial issue with me. My fun is in taking the photos. I only have two 512 mb memory cards, and no money for more.

Also I would need to buy more hard drive space. We have looked into that because of PC problems, since I have been uploading so many photos. However, we can't afford it now..............don't know when.

I know I can't afford tennis shoes until the end of the month, so the hard drive will have to wait. I spend a lot of time trouble shooting my computer. Today was an example.

It is really not fear, it is the restriction of not being able to take as many pictures as rapidly as I like to, and the fear that my computer is going to crash totally from the weight of the photos I put on it.

Repeating, if I could afford the setup, I would certainly try and use RAW, it is financial.

ginger (The tennis shoes were budgeted then the tripod was more than expected.................and so it goes)

We do not all have the same resources. I will print this out. Might try it some night, unless I really need the photoshop plug in and it costs money, then the tennis shoes are the next priority.

ginger_55

andy wrote:

the adobe camera raw update is *free* no charge.

i'm not suggesting that you shoot in raw full-time, but why don't you just TRY it TRY it ginger for your nightshots?

you won't regret it.

oh and ginger - i carry only 1gb of memory card. and i shoot raw 100% of the time.

i made this tutorial just for you.

I think you and I shoot a little differently, Andy. I would like a 1gb card, or another 512, I just got the second 512 a couple of months ago, I thought it would give me unlimited shooting, it doesn't.

I will use the raw this week, my husband suggested that I call to ask you if I could shoot two hours before sunset, it was almost totally dark, just the weather.

But when it looks a bit clear, I will set it on RAW and go to Shem Creek, to see what I get.

Thanks, ginger

ginger_55

I have my camera set on RAW. Just reporting. The settings are AV (aperture priority), auto focus, thought that could change, AWB white balance, might be 100 ISO (should be bumped up for night, right? but how much?).

Then I can upload the photos as normal, to my PC, with my trusty old SanDisk.

I have the tutorial filed, and also the book How to WOW (Kelby's easiest to follow).

Now for the tripod...............good thing Bill fished the carrying case out of the marsh where it was blown last night.

ginger

Any hints would be appreciated. Also any remarks on my settings.

Tomorrow I can get the thing from Photoshop, hope they don't want proof of ownership. (PS 7)

The rain might stop tomorrow afternoon, with clearing on Thursday. I have done all I can for now? I took a picture of a dog (no Snappy, not Red, you seem to be keeping that dog), mine was lying around looking like a dog.

DavidTO

Well, that was easy. No wonder you write so many tutorials, you do a good job!

Andy (and anyone else) I have a question. I use C1 for my RAW processing. I never adjust my saturation, but do adjust the white balance, exposure compensation, black and gray points, and sometimes contrast. But I never adjust saturation.

Question is, I just got back another order of prints from smugmug. Shots that look good to me on my monitor, but are overly saturated on the prints. In your experience do you have to tone back on the saturation when you process RAW? Or is there something that I could be doing with the other settings that could be boosting the saturation somehow?

No doubt that I'm going to start knocking back the saturation. But I am curious why it would be overly saturated in the first place. Is it just that it's more than the CMYK print can handle? Is there a way to gauge what a print can handle as far as saturation?

Here's all the relevant info I can think of: I shoot on a Digital Rebel, process with C1SE, OSX 10.3.5, monitor calibrated with the calibration tool built into OSX, gamma set to the PC standard (not Mac standard).

Some shots come back fine, others look odd. So it's not entirely consisten.

gubbs

DavidTO wrote:

Well, that was easy. No wonder you write so many tutorials, you do a good job!

Andy (and anyone else) I have a question. I use C1 for my RAW processing. I never adjust my saturation, but do adjust the white balance, exposure compensation, black and gray points, and sometimes contrast. But I never adjust saturation.

Question is, I just got back another order of prints from smugmug. Shots that look good to me on my monitor, but are overly saturated on the prints. In your experience do you have to tone back on the saturation when you process RAW? Or is there something that I could be doing with the other settings that could be boosting the saturation somehow?

No doubt that I'm going to start knocking back the saturation. But I am curious why it would be overly saturated in the first place. Is it just that it's more than the CMYK print can handle? Is there a way to gauge what a print can handle as far as saturation?

Here's all the relevant info I can think of: I shoot on a Digital Rebel, process with C1SE, OSX 10.3.5, monitor calibrated with the calibration tool built into OSX, gamma set to the PC standard (not Mac standard).

Some shots come back fine, others look odd. So it's not entirely consisten.

David,
Now that you have said it, I've noticed at least a couple of your pictures that have been over saturated, your "song titles" entry, and your "movement" entry. The grass is REALLY green in both of them.

DavidTO

gubbs wrote:

David,
Now that you have said it, I've noticed at least a couple of your pictures that have been over saturated, your "song titles" entry, and your "movement" entry. The grass is REALLY green in both of them.

Yeah, and it's just out of the camera like that. I must just be so used to it. The song titles one actually printed nicely, though.

ginger_55

Help!
I can't do it. I set my camera, shot the photos, uploaded them to the computer, windows, with an old SanDisk thing. I can't get them to show up on Adobe. The folders does, but nothing else. The only plug in that I saw avail from adobe last night is for CS.

I have a pirated PS7 program from a friend of my husband's. He is not available today.

I went to the help pages for PS 7, they said that if "I" couldn't do it, I might need to install the plug in, and it had a thing to click on for the plug in. There was nothing about a RAW plug in.

I have wanted CS for a long time, no way that I can afford it, I could not have afforded PS 7............. it was just given to me to download.

I have no idea what C1 is that is being talked about. The photos I took were just junk, trials, so I have lost nothing except face here. (When I uploaded the pictures, they did not show up as pictures, just funny looking files. I thought they would open in photoshop, but they don't even appear there.)

I don't see how I can do this.

ginger I am going to ask for help, but bear in mind that it is hot AND very humid in here. I am not going to be able to stay at this level of frustration and failure very long.

ginger_55

My bought and paid for programs is Elements 2.0, I am more used to PS7 after a few months using it. But I did try this same thing, to bring up the Raw files to Elements. It is the same as PS 7.

There are instructions as to how to do it, however, I don't see the files to bring open one............. same as PS 7.

I don't need a 1 gb card, would be nice, but not needed, if I can't figure this out, for free.

ginger

spockling

Ginger, try downloading your images from your card using the canon software (zoom browser) that came with your camera. There is a tab there to process raw images.

ginger_55

spockling wrote:

Ginger, try downloading your images from your card using the canon software (zoom browser) that came with your camera. There is a tab there to process raw images.

Thank you, Spockling, that has occurred to me. I do not have that anymore. I am sure there must have been something, but I have been doing this very efficiently for so long. I had a Canon Elph for years, it did not occur to me that I needed to save the stuff that came with the camera longer than it took for my husband to throw it away.

ginger

ginger_55

The raw files are still on my hard drive. They cannot be opened, the computer tells me, as it doesn't know what program created them.

I was not afraid of this at the beginning, shooting in RAW, I mean, but it is beginning to be rather frightening. I threw stuff away I shouldn't have, I can't open files. I am sure this is a trial to all you who just wanted to help me.

I have no idea what to do next.

ginger

tmlphoto

ginger_55 wrote:

My bought and paid for programs is Elements 2.0, I am more used to PS7 after a few months using it. But I did try this same thing, to bring up the Raw files to Elements. It is the same as PS 7.

There are instructions as to how to do it, however, I don't see the files to bring open one............. same as PS 7.

I don't need a 1 gb card, would be nice, but not needed, if I can't figure this out, for free.

ginger

Ginger, You can use the Canon software that came with your camera to view and convert the raw images to JPEG. It is slower than the PS CS method, but should work. Not sure about a plug in for PS 7. I'll try to find one for you.

tmlphoto

The only plugin for PS 7 I can find is from Adobe and appears to cost $99. You can upgrade to PS CS for about $150 on Adobe's site. I realize that this might not be in your budget right now. For now, I would suggest using the Canon software that came with your Rebel. Let me know if you need help using it.

lynnma

ginger_55 wrote:

Thank you, Spockling, that has occurred to me. I do not have that anymore. I am sure there must have been something, but I have been doing this very efficiently for so long. I had a Canon Elph for years, it did not occur to me that I needed to save the stuff that came with the camera longer than it took for my husband to throw it away.

ginger

Ginger.. zoombroweser also comes with the DRebel... rummage about and see if you can find it...

Andy

ginger - STOP THROWING FILES AWAY!

ginger_55 wrote:

The raw files are still on my hard drive. They cannot be opened, the computer tells me, as it doesn't know what program created them.

I was not afraid of this at the beginning, shooting in RAW, I mean, but it is beginning to be rather frightening. I threw stuff away I shouldn't have, I can't open files. I am sure this is a trial to all you who just wanted to help me.

I have no idea what to do next.

ginger

my goodness. don't throw anything away we'll get you sorted out ginger. in the meantime, shoot jpg for cryin' out loud, so you won't have any problems.

did you find your disks that came with your camera?

Baldy

Great tutorial, Andy! clap

ginger_55

andy wrote:

my goodness. don't throw anything away we'll get you sorted out ginger. in the meantime, shoot jpg for cryin' out loud, so you won't have any problems.

did you find your disks that came with your camera?

Yes, I went upstairs to the room where Bill puts things when I say, "Do not throw this out". I found a hole in the ceiling, a lot of old water damage, and new (don't tell the insurance people).

On the bed I found the box the camera came in. I climbed over everything, got it, brought it downstairs to see what was in it.

The discs are !) it came with Elements which I already had, and 2) it came with
EOS solution disc ver 6.1 (unopened).

There is no info with the discs, they put it on the disks now, if they can get away with it, it is cheaper.

There is a cable to connect the camera to the computer. It says to stop and be sure to install the driver software from the enclosed CD (the solution one?)
before connecting the camera to the computer with this cable.

The weather is a brighter grey today.

ginger (that is all i have, plus the hole in the roof. I had better move all the family photos away from that) I think this is the entire contents of the box. I often warn Bill he will "die" if he throws something out, but he puts it somewhere, often in that room. I was obviously concerned. But if this hadn't come up, I would never have needed it.

lynnma

ginger_55 wrote:

Yes, I went upstairs to the room where Bill puts things when I say, "Do not throw this out". I found a hole in the ceiling, a lot of old water damage, and new (don't tell the insurance people).

On the bed I found the box the camera came in. I climbed over everything, got it, brought it downstairs to see what was in it.

The discs are !) it came with Elements which I already had, and 2) it came with
EOS solution disc ver 6.1 (unopened).

There is no info with the discs, they put it on the disks now, if they can get away with it, it is cheaper.

There is a cable to connect the camera to the computer. It says to stop and be sure to install the driver software from the enclosed CD (the solution one?)
before connecting the camera to the computer with this cable.

The weather is a brighter grey today.

ginger (that is all i have, plus the hole in the roof. I had better move all the family photos away from that) I think this is the entire contents of the box. I often warn Bill he will "die" if he throws something out, but he puts it somewhere, often in that room. I was obviously concerned. But if this hadn't come up, I would never have needed it.

Ok.. sounds good.. look on the disc under FOR WINDOWS (if you have windows) you don't have a Mac do you? and you'll see all the stuff thats on there.. file viewer, zoombrowser, photorecord, etc etc... go put the disc in your computer and download zoombroweser and anything else that looks interesting.. and move the family photo's from on top of the bed and put them under the bed.. or better still, in the chest of drawers..

lynnma

lynnma wrote:

Ok.. sounds good.. look on the disc under FOR WINDOWS (if you have windows) you don't have a Mac do you? and you'll see all the stuff thats on there.. file viewer, zoombrowser, photorecord, etc etc... go put the disc in your computer and download zoombroweser and anything else that looks interesting.. and move the family photo's from on top of the bed and put them under the bed.. or better still, in the chest of drawers..

p.s. how do you connect your camera to the computer now.. do you use a Card Reader??

ginger_55

lynnma wrote:

Ok.. sounds good.. look on the disc under FOR WINDOWS (if you have windows) you don't have a Mac do you? and you'll see all the stuff thats on there.. file viewer, zoombrowser, photorecord, etc etc... go put the disc in your computer and download zoombroweser and anything else that looks interesting.. and move the family photo's from on top of the bed and put them under the bed.. or better still, in the chest of drawers..

Thanks, Lynn. I am doing some health insurance stuff now. I did check and zoombroweser is listed. So, I will download it, etc.

But not tonight!! I just want to try out the tri-pod and hope the weather is OK for something, so that I can go out tonight. I have about 10 days to get this all in.

So, my original question was RGB settings, if I go out tonight, before the zoombrowser which is more likely this weekend. I have to test it first, anyway.

So, is there anyone who can answer RGB settings? I was thinking of putting it on cloudy, if I am outdoors, 400 or 800 or 1600 ISO?? Then AV, which is aperture priority? And about -1 for exposure compensation??

Those were the questions I wanted to know first. I think where I am going I will be able to use the tripod, the sun is coming in and out. Might be tomorrow night.

ginger

lynnma

ginger_55 wrote:

Thanks, Lynn. I am doing some health insurance stuff now. I did check and zoombroweser is listed. So, I will download it, etc.

But not tonight!! I just want to try out the tri-pod and hope the weather is OK for something, so that I can go out tonight. I have about 10 days to get this all in.

So, my original question was RGB settings, if I go out tonight, before the zoombrowser which is more likely this weekend. I have to test it first, anyway.

So, is there anyone who can answer RGB settings? I was thinking of putting it on cloudy, if I am outdoors, 400 or 800 or 1600 ISO?? Then AV, which is aperture priority? And about -1 for exposure compensation??

Those were the questions I wanted to know first. I think where I am going I will be able to use the tripod, the sun is coming in and out. Might be tomorrow night.

ginger

Ginger.. here are the tips that Andy left.. lowest ISO etc and remember, if you shoot in raw.. not saying that you should or should'nt it's your choice, but if you did, you can change the white balance in post, and some exposure, etc... just for fun you could do a couple jpgs and couple raw.... go on .... be a devil.. put on yer purple hat..

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=2564

snapapple

Can anyone help me here?
I have discovered that I have a program that can process RAW files. I have Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8. I took a shot in RAW. I opened it in Paint Shop Pro. It was very small, maybe 2" by 3". When I zoom in on it, it gets all pixeley. How can I edit this? Am I doing something wrong? Can I set my camera on a higher resolution or something? Please, can anyone help?

DavidTO

snapapple wrote:

I have discovered that I have a program that can process RAW files. I have Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8. I took a shot in RAW. I opened it in Paint Shop Pro. It was very small, maybe 2" by 3". When I zoom in on it, it gets all pixeley. How can I edit this? Am I doing something wrong? Can I set my camera on a higher resolution or something? Please, can anyone help?

Never used the app, but I can tell you what I know.

Most RAW files have an embedded preview, which is basically a large thumbnail. This might be what you're viewing. Also, when you're viewing a RAW file prior to processing it out to jpeg or tiff or whatever, you're not looking at the final product, unless you view it in a particular way. In C1 (the software I use) it's called the focus tool. Processing the RAW file takes a bit of thinking, and for the most part the apps aproximate what it's going to look like until you've processed it out. Lastly, depending on the app and the speed of your machine, it may be that the computer is working towards a non-pixelated version, but that the processing is taking time, and you need to be more patient.

Hope that helps.

snapapple

DavidTO wrote:

Never used the app, but I can tell you what I know.

Most RAW files have an embedded preview, which is basically a large thumbnail. This might be what you're viewing. Also, when you're viewing a RAW file prior to processing it out to jpeg or tiff or whatever, you're not looking at the final product, unless you view it in a particular way. In C1 (the software I use) it's called the focus tool. Processing the RAW file takes a bit of thinking, and for the most part the apps aproximate what it's going to look like until you've processed it out. Lastly, depending on the app and the speed of your machine, it may be that the computer is working towards a non-pixelated version, but that the processing is taking time, and you need to be more patient.

Hope that helps.

Thanks David,
I looked at the files again and I see two files. One has an extension of THM and the other is ORF or something like that. I think I opened the THM file, which, of course, stand for thumb. Duh. The other file didn't open when I clicked on it. But, maybe I didn't wait long enough. I'll try again. Thanks for your help.

Andy

orf = olympus raw file

snapapple wrote:

Thanks David,
I looked at the files again and I see two files. One has an extension of THM and the other is ORF or something like that. I think I opened the THM file, which, of course, stand for thumb. Duh. The other file didn't open when I clicked on it. But, maybe I didn't wait long enough. I'll try again. Thanks for your help.

your camera probably came with software that allows you to read this .orf file. or, you can check adobe and see if there's a plug-in that covers your camera

ginger_55

lynnma wrote:

p.s. how do you connect your camera to the computer now.. do you use a Card Reader??

Yes, I use a small SanDisk card reader. Works great. I have used it so long the lettering is almost worn off.

g

windoze

i never saw this before!!! seems as if it was made for me, but im willing to bet it wont work for me ;( but right after my meds ( Severe swimmer's ear - yet i dont swim; go figure ) wear off im trying it ...

PS ( i bet the 1st thing that goes wrong is - it doesnt open a 20 D RAW and then since i have CS ill have to upgrade to CS2 and then Ill need a plugin and with all that fixin-up, ill be broken )


troy

andy wrote:

okay so you'd like to try raw, but you're feeling a bit daunted. take a deep cleansing breath, and work with me here.

1. set your camera to "raw" (rtfm if you don't know how to do this )

2. take a pic

3. open photoshop (in this case, it's photoshop cs).

4. if you haven't updated your adobe camera raw plug-in, go to adobe and download the latest version

5. open the raw file (file>open and click on the file name)

6. you'll next be presented with this:


7. if you are just starting out, only concern yourself with the things i've circled here - white balance (color temperature and tint) and exposure. forget everything else, for now! this is an important step for beginners to raw.

8. start by playing with the color temp slider and the tint slider. notice how it changes the pic - you may wish to adjust this, or you may wish to accept your camera's auto wb setting. but play around with it, notice the effects.

9. play with the exposure slider - you can get as much as 2 stops either way without adversely affecting the image quality - sometimes - and it depends on the type of scene and the lighting / iso / etc. start by making small adjustments to the exposure, carefully watching the histogram upper right, don't blow any of the highlights

10. when you have finished your tweaking, click on "ok" (upper right) and the file will be brought into "regular" photoshop. now edit as you would any other pic in photoshop, and remember, save the file as a different name than the original raw file!

there, not so hard, is it?

Dani

heres a dumb question that I prolly already know the answer too....

what is the advantage of opening the raw in regular pshop after the basic conversion and doing your standard adjustments (levels, curves, sharpening etc etc etc) to the raw file and then saving as a jpg or whatever vs doing the basic raw conversion, saving as a jpg from there and then opening the jpg to do adjustments?

I'm asking this because I have CS2.. and unlike CS it doesn't have an OK and CANCEL button..... it has SAVE, OPEN, CANCEL and DONE.... and I'd just been clicking on save.. which lets you save as a jpg and then opening that back up to process. Only because I figured OPEN just let you open another raw file.

Well.... turn out OPEN opens the raw file in standard pshop so you can do regular post processing... DOH!!!!!!!!! I didn't know that!!! !!!!!!!!

and here all this time I didn't even know you could do regular post processing to raw files... just the conversion!!! :uhoh


duh....


hey I have been shooting in raw only though from the day I got the cam!!!! I'll shoot in nothing else

gus

snapapple wrote:

Thanks David,
I looked at the files again and I see two files. One has an extension of THM and the other is ORF or something like that. I think I opened the THM file, which, of course, stand for thumb. Duh. The other file didn't open when I clicked on it. But, maybe I didn't wait long enough. I'll try again. Thanks for your help.

Snapapple...download Rawshooter essentials its free & does a good job for free.They do ask for a real email for registration but never pass it on or annoy you.

My 20D has never shot a Jpeg. Once the penny drops as to how you can change the temp of a shot in RAw then you can get so much more form an 'ordinary' shot.